Real Madrid to use NFL technology to 'revolutionise' football

Tom Weber

15 Nov 2025 21:16 GMT
4 min read

Real Madrid are looking to implement technology used by the NFL to help with injury prevention, according to Spanish media.

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Injuries and fixture congestion have become hotly debated topics in football, and Real Madrid have been hit particularly hard in recent seasons. Several key players have suffered ACL injuries - Eder Militao twice - or other serious problems.

Currently, Dani Carvajal, Aurelien Tchouameni, Antonio Rudiger and Franco Mastantuono are sidelined, while Eduardo Camavinga and Kylian Mbappe have returned from the France camp due to fitness concerns.

Current ETV

Kylian Mbappé

F (C)

Real Madrid

Kylian Mbappé

F (C)

Real Madrid

ETV Range

€107.9M - €131.8M

Summer signing Trent Alexander-Arnold has barely played for the club due to his repeated struggles to stay fit. The aforementioned Mastantuono is one of many high-profile footballers suffering from pubalgia, an affliction also plaguing Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams.

Injuries will never be fully preventable in a high-intensity contact sport such as football, but steps can be taken to limit the risk to players. The availability of increasingly granular data is one way of helping to prevent injuries.

Real Madrid looking to the NFL

According to AS, Real Madrid are now looking to the NFL for advice on how to lower the risk of injuries. Medical advisor Niko Mihic revealed to the Spanish outlet that he is trying to gain access to the NFL's injury prediction tool Digital Athlete.

“In the United States, they have something we're going to try to bring here: the Digital Athlete. I'm in the process of getting authorisation to bring it here,” Mihic said ahead of Sunday's game between the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Commanders at the Santiago Bernabeu.

© IMAGO - Kylian Mbappe is currently injured

“At the beginning of the season, they have the athlete run for seven days, and it can tell you when they're weakening. It's a bit like what happens with cars."

The Digital Athlete has been created in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is a major data provider for sports leagues and teams, including the German Bundesliga. The NFL claims that Digital Athlete is "revolutionising player health and safety."

"The Digital Athlete is an injury prediction tool that leverages data and artificial intelligence to help clubs keep players healthy and performing at their best on the field.

"It does this by providing a complete view of an NFL player's experience, taking video and data from training, practice and games and using AWS technology to run millions of simulations of NFL games and specific scenarios to tell teams when players are at the highest risk of injury."

As AS points out, the NFL even used the Digital Athlete to change its kickoff rule after simulations showed that the previous rule increased the risk of injury. All 32 NFL teams have access to this tool, and now Real Madrid are trying to implement it as well.

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